Monday, June 30, 2008

Jacob had his 2 month checkup today and passed with flying colors. He also received 3 shots which I think they were just as hard on me as they were on him. I hate needles and to see them poke my son with a needle was really hard. He is a trooper though; he was asleep in the waiting room just a few minutes after getting the shots and spent a good amount of time tonight playing. He is currently 14 pounds and 24 inches long. He is already wearing some size 6 months pajamas. They are a little big around but the length is perfect. It is hard to believe that it has been 2 months since he was born. We have had our ups and downs with finding a formula to work for him as well as dealing with some digestion problems but all in all he is a great baby. I find myself just staring at him wondering if he could get any cuter and thinking how lucky we are that God chose us to be his parents.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Ok, we officially have Jacob's passport in hand and are ready to go toGuatemala at any time. We are getting really frustrated to say the leastabout this process. As you can tell by the "ticker" up top we have been inthis process now for 1 year, 2months, and 4 days. WAY TOO LONG!!! It isPAST time to bring Madison home. I am almost positive that our case is ourattorney's oldest (most outstanding) case he has so why has he not given it priority? I understand that other families want their children home just as bad as we do but honestly is it really fair for a family who just started theprocess in December to be out of PGN and waiting on a visa already? Weknow that there are several families who started after we did and are already out of PGN. Yes, we do know that other cases have not had the paperwork issues we have and that those children might have been born in another area that is more adoption friendly when it comes to processing things timely butstill does it seem fair? I learned as a kid that life was not fair and itnever will be but does it have to be so unfair? We personally feel thatour attorney should be making our case a top priority for the simple fact that it has been in over a year since we started. One would think that it would be in the best interest of Madison to have the case completed beforemuch longer.Wayne and I have tried our best to stay positive during this entire process and have tried not to make too many waves. We have let our adoption agency know how frustrated we are and that we question if our attorney is working on our case like he should. We get told that yes he is working on it and thatthey understand our concerns, but I can't help but think that due to thelanguage barrier we are not always getting the entire truth. It is veryhard to have a confrontational conversation with someone when you don't speak the same language.Our attorney told our adoption agency that he should have our interview sometime this week but I can't help but think that he just says that to keepfrom having to answer any more questions. I can tell you that if we don'thave any answers by Monday at the latest (if it is possible with the holiday coming up our agency might be closed) we are wanting to try to find a way to have a conference call with our attorney and our coordinator.

I cannot stress enough on how much we need your prayers about the adoption at this time so please keep praying.

We also want to ask you to please pray for Jacob, he is still having reflux issues as well as "tummy trouble" which keeps him from eating what he should as well as sleeping

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

We received a medical update and pictures on Madison today. This update has been a very long time coming. We have been praying daily that we hear something soon about her well being and receive some recent pictures. She went to the doctor on the 16th and received a good report. She is 25 pounds and a little under 31 inches tall. She is walking and crawling, this great since she couldn't crawl at all when we were there in March. She was trying to walk and not crawl. She also finally has some teeth. In the pictures we can tell that she has at least two bottom teeth. We are so excited to be able to see how she has grown in the pictures and know that she is doing well. We continue to trust in God that he will bring her home very soon. Our attorney in Guatemala seems to think that our case will have the birthmother interview scheduled really soon and once that is over that our case won't be in PGN long at all. We are praying for her to come home really soon. Since January it has been really hard for us to not get upset and down about this entire process. We have seen other families be able to take their children home and wonder when we will get a break on our case and get to do the same. I have to admit though that if we were told we could have a child home by the end of the month but that it would not be Madison, I would have to tell them that I will continue to wait. I know Wayne feels the same way I do, any other child would not be Madison and Madison is meant to be a part of our family. While we wait we continue to pray that she comes home very soon and also for God to give us the strength to make it through the waiting period. We do not always know the rewards God has for us after a long waiting period but in this case we know that our reward is Madison. Wayne and I absolutely love her more than we can say. We know that everyone else will fall in love with her as well once she is home. We can't wait for Jacob to meet his big sister and for her to meet her little brother. I am sure that will be a day that I never forget.

Please continue to pray for us and that God will bring Madison home to us really soon.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Here is a picture of Wayne and Jacob on Father's Day. As you can tell they dressed alike for Wayne's first Father's Day. Everyone loved their shirts. Jacob is doing really well and changing each day. It is hard to believe that on Wednesday he will be 7 weeks old. I guess time really flies by when you are sleep deprived.

We are still waiting on news about Madison and/or our case. We are getting really frustrated because we have not received any information about Madison's well being since December. We thankfully had our visit in March which helped us get by a few months but now we are craving some information. It is so hard to know she is going through each day learning new things and we have no idea about her life for the past few months. We really need all of your prayers to help us through this time. We really feel in our hearts that we are getting close to the end but no news is really hard to handle.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

We found out that our attorney has had some interviews this week but unfortunately none of them have been for our case. We did hear that the interviews seem to be going well which is a good thing. We have also read through some other blogs that cases are being released from PGN so we really feel that as soon as we get our interview completed then it is only a matter of time before we will be out of PGN. Please pray that our case has an interview very soon. (As a reminder the interviews are when PGN interviews the birthmothers about the adoption as well as the attorney). Also please pray for Madison's birthmother during this process. We are still working on getting some information about Madison such as how big she is, is she walking, etc. Hopefully we will have some new information about her case and her very soon.

This past weekend we went to the beach with some of my family. Here are a few pictures of Jacob's first trip to the beach.

(I can't wait to be able to post Madison's first trip to the beach - praying that it will be this summer that I get to post those pictures)

We did not take him any further into the water which is good since he wasn't too happy with just that little bit. I am sure he will grow to love the ocean as much as his Mommy does.